Sunday observance

As we saw yesterday, there is no Biblical evidence
of Sunday observance in Israel or the surrounding
nations even up to the last chapter and final verse of
Revelation. Sabbath observance seems to have been
the norm all around.
Even outside the Bible we never find any evidence
of Sunday observance until we reach the turn of the
first century, but even then the changes happened
only ever so slowly.
One of the earliest decrees regarding Sabbath
observance came about in A.D. 135, when Emperor
Hadrian issued a decree banning the practice of
Judaism and even more specifically making it
illegal across the empire to observe the Sabbath.
Around A.D. 130 - 138 a letter written by a certain
Barnabas talks about the observance of the eighth
day (Sunday). His principal reason for observing
the eighth day was to distance himself from Judaism.

In the early days of Christianity the sun was often
taken as a symbol to represent Jesus Christ. This
connection proved to be important because a calendar
change came about in the second century A.D. The days
of the week were given new names connecting them to
heavenly bodies. So the day of the moon was Monday.
Tuesday borrowed its name from Mars (Martes).
Mercury gave its name to Miercoles (Wednsesday).
Jueves was for Jupiter. Viernes was for Venus,
Saturday for Saturn and Domino for the day of the
Lord (in this case, the Sun or the Lord Jesus). Then
Sunday was moved up to be the first day of the week.
This move coincided also with growing feelings of
anti-Judaism across the Roman empire because there
had been a bitter Jewish rebellion still fresh in Roman
memories. So now it was simply more fashionable to
observe Sunday for two reasons: it distanced the new
Christian religion from the unpopular Jews and it had the
appearance of showing allegiance to Jesus (who was
often represented by the symbol of the sun). Jerome,
one of the early church leaders wrote that "we must
willingly acknowledge" Sunday as the day of the sun
"since it is on this day that the light of the world
appeared and on this day the Sun of Justice has
risen."
These changes explained above represent the
shift of early Christianity from Sabbath observance
to Sunday keeping.

The moderator.